The National Commission on Writing has released an important study today of the role of writing skills (and needs) in the American workplace: "Writing: A Ticket to Work . . . Or a Ticket Out, A Survey of Business Leaders". The whole .pdf file of the report is worth saving and reading; indeed, the NCW's other report -- a call for a writing revolution -- is also pertinent and worth a look-see.

As you can guess, workers are coming up short in their ability to write. 1/3 are not meeting the writing requirements of their positions sufficiently. News stories are all over the net about it today (and I even saw a ticker on CNN that mentioned it).

This is hardly breaking news to me or anyone else who teaches writing by any means, but scary statistics like these function as an important reminder of why writing education is so important. I will probably share the results of the report with my Freshman Comp class and colleagues who teach it. There are many statistics in the report that suggest that English/Writing majors, too, will have a better chance at getting hired and promoted in the corporate world.

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